Navigating the waters of adulthood while living on the autistic spectrum. I'm university student in Western Canada, suffering through the sea of challenging social interactions undertaken by us "grown ups" on a regular basis and trying my best to adapt to change.

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Friday, 27 September 2013

100th Post on Young Autistic Female

Years ago, I came up with the idea to blog about my life as a young woman with autism. I was in the ninth or tenth grade at the time; I had just started at a new school and, frankly, I was in a pretty dark time in my life. Those early years of high school were very difficult for me. I had a lot of anxiety problems in those years, a lot of social issues, no friends, and was going through a phase where I was often considering self-harm. I had a very troubled relationship with my family at the time and, for whatever reason, every difficulty I ever had seemed to be attributed to autism. I had tons of doctors at the time and my parents would seek them out complaining that they didn't know how to handle me and my autism.

I started this blog exactly 100 posts ago - last December. I was going through a rough time then as well and blogging about ASD made me feel better about the relationships I had lost due to my then-recent difficulty in social situations.

100 posts later, here I am.

This is definitely not the most-read blog -- nor do I imagine it ever will be -- but that's all right with me. The purpose of this blog is not to accumulate thousands of views a day. Instead, what I endeavor to do here is share pieces of myself as I am able. I try to share how I live as an Autistic individual and the struggles I face and how I overcome them. This is kind of a cathartic thing for me, actually; it definitely helps me through some of my challenges. I also like to share some issues I see in the Autistic community here. I like to share news stories and advocacy issues and as much as I can about the little things I see in the news and other sources. I want to connect with other Autistics online; I want to find mentors. I want to discover and provide insight.

I am proud of myself as a Young Autistic Female and, frankly, I think that's the most important thing to me about this blog. This is where I share my Autistic pride. This is where I share that I'm OK with my quirks and, for the most part, I see my Autistic differences as having made me a better person. I am pretty content with my life right now and I enjoy sharing it.

Happy 100 posts, you guys! I've enjoyed being here as a tiny little part of the Autistic blogging community and I can't wait to continue blogging, meeting new people, and connecting with you all.